Badgers: licence to interfere with setts for development purposes (A24 and LR24)
Apply for a licence to interfere with badger setts during development work and find out how to report your actions.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Use application form A24 to apply for a licence to interfere with badger setts during development work. The licence covers housing developments, the construction of pipelines and the building of new fences.
Apply for an A24 licence
Complete licence application form A24.
You must have the required permission or consent to carry out the work. You need to include copies of documents to show this with your application form or Natural England will reject your application.
You must explain how:
- the proposed development work will interfere with the badger setts
- you’ll carry out any mitigation work
Natural England will decide whether to issue a licence within 30 working days of receiving your application and supporting documents.
When you need to pay
You may need to pay for an A24 licence. Natural England will assess your A24 form and tell you:
- if you need to pay
- how much you’ll pay
Read the terms and conditions for paying for a wildlife licence.
When you do not need to pay
You may not need to pay for a licence for:
- householder home improvements such as an extension, garage, car port, wall or fence
- historic building conservation - a scheduled monument, listed building or registered place of worship
How to pay
Natural England will send you an invoice when it approves your application.
You can pay by:
- electronic bank transfer
- debit or credit card by telephone - except American Express
- cheque
Your invoice will give payment method details.
VAT does not apply to charges for wildlife licences.
You need to include your invoice number with your payment.
Natural England accepts purchase orders. If you want Natural England to add a purchase number to your invoice, you must include it in the invoice details in your A24 form.
Report your actions
You must report any actions you took using this licence on the report form LR24.
You must report within 2 weeks of your licence expiring, even if you’ve taken no action.
Send your completed form by post or email to Natural England using the details on the form.
Updates to this page
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Updated Interfere with a badger sett for development purposes: licence application form (A24). In the introductory section, updated the telephone number for the Wildlife Licensing team. In Section 16: Licence charges, updated the costs. In Section 18: Convictions, added an additional wildlife offence for the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019.
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Removed a call to action about applying through the test version of an online licence application service because this service is no longer available.
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Added a call to action about applying through the test version of an online licence application service.
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Removed references to the separate charge form. You should enter charge screening information into section 16 of the A24 form.
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We've replaced the licence application form (A24).
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We've replaced the licence application form (A24) and the report form (LR24).
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From 7 December 2020 you may need to pay for an A24 licence. Added A24 charge screening form and updated A24 licence application form.
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Replaced application form (A24) with updated version. Added paragraph about the need to provide proof of consents with applications.
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Updated version of application form and report form added.
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First published.